


Warm and Fuzzy

by rowenathereb



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Cute, Domestic, Fluff, M/M, bit of angst, idk how to tag, little bit of crack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-29
Updated: 2019-07-29
Packaged: 2020-07-25 02:09:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20024827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rowenathereb/pseuds/rowenathereb
Summary: “My brother is not exactly... warm and fuzzy.”Words spoke to Magnus when he had yet to get to know Alec fully. At the time he could see that Alec cared deeply about those around him, but his actions up to that point weren’t exactly clear. But now after months of dating, Magnus couldn’t fathom how those words could leave Isabelle’s mouth. Perhaps the Institute forced him to put up a mask of hardness and stone, but Magnus knew his heart was soft for those who had earned it. He’d seen it with his own eyes.





	Warm and Fuzzy

**Author's Note:**

> Just thought I might mention that I’ve never read the book series, so all of my knowledge of the world and characterization is coming from the tv show. Hope you enjoy nonetheless!

_ “My brother is not exactly... warm and fuzzy.” _

Words spoke to Magnus when he had yet to get to know Alec fully. At the time he could see that Alec cared deeply about those around him, but his actions up to that point weren’t exactly clear. But now after months of dating, Magnus couldn’t fathom how those words could leave Isabelle’s mouth. Perhaps the Institute forced him to put up a mask of hardness and stone, but Magnus knew his heart was soft for those who had earned it. He’d seen it with his own eyes.

\---

_ Letting Max sleep on the couch in his office. _

Magnus walks through the halls of the Institute to Alexander’s office with practiced precision. As he gets to the open door, he sees Alec engrossed in his work. “So I was thinking-” he starts off strongly, but is cut off by Alec shushing him. Magnus is taken aback and gives him a questioning look, and his guard goes up in case of some kind of danger. 

“Sorry,” Alec says in a hushed voice, getting up and kissing Magnus on the cheek, he instantly relaxes. “I just don’t want him to wake up.” Magnus looks around the room, searching for the “him” Alec was referring to. His eyes land on Max Lightwood curled up on the couch asleep. His blonde hair is falling in his face and he has a blanket wrapped around him tightly.

“Isn’t he supposed to be doing some kind of Shadowhunter training?” Magnus adjusts his volume so he doesn’t wake the youngest Lightwood.

“He said he was just going to hide from Izzy for a while, I was gonna wake him up and send him out to train in a bit.” Magnus doesn’t believe it, and by the look on his face, Alexander doesn’t really believe it either. Alec looks at Max’s sleeping form with fondness, but also a hint of sadness, “He just came here looking so exhausted. I couldn’t send him out on the training floor like that.”

Magnus wraps his arms around Alec’s shoulders to get him to make eye contact, “You really don’t have to explain to me, Alexander.”

His face falls into full sadness, “It’s hard to send him out. I don’t remember it being this hard with Izzy and Jace. I mean I was out on missions when I was ten. And he’s already twelve. I just...” Alec sighs deeply, so much worry etched into his face.

“Alexander, he’s your baby brother. There’s no shame in trying to protect him. That’s what you do. But you know better than anyone, the best way to keep him safe is to make sure he’s prepared.”

A prideful smile rises to Alec’s face, “He’s been working so hard, Mags. He’s already so talented, he’s really gonna be the best of us Lightwoods.”

“So he deserves this break. I think all you Lightwoods deserve a break at this point,” Magnus says pointedly. Magnus is in awe of the family’s work ethic, but they are all guilty of overworking themselves to the point of exhaustion. 

Alec understands the implication of his words, “Right… so you came in here to say something to me?”

”Ah yes, I was thinking that we should portal out for dinner. Maybe in Italy? Or France?”

Alec’s smile gets even wider, “That actually sounds perfect. I just have a little bit of work to finish here. I should be by the loft in about an hour?”

Magnus plants a soft kiss on Alec’s lips, “Don’t be late, Shadowhunter.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Alexander calls out as Magnus turns to leave.    
  


_ Getting his mom flowers _

Magnus had dropped by to ask Alexander if he would join him for a lunch date. He, of course, accepted. They decided to walk to a small Mexican restaurant around the corner. After a nice date, they slowly made their way back to the Institute. Magnus is speaking animatedly about one of the times he spent in Scotland when he realizes that Alec is no longer walking by his side. Alec had stopped at a small street vendor selling flowers, looking at each bouquet intensely. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you buy flowers, Alexander,” Magnus walked up to stand beside him, admiring some of the beautiful arrangements. 

Alec’s eyes never leave the flowers, “My mother is spending the day with Izzy in the Institute. I was thinking flowers could be a nice surprise..” He sounds unsure of himself though. 

“Well, what’s the significance?” Magnus asks, always trying to learn something new about his boyfriend. 

“When me and Izzy we’re still really young we would play out in the garden. And we used to pull flowers and bring them to her. They were nowhere to be seen the next day, but she always looked so excited when we brought them to her.” Alec shared as if it was nothing, but the story really touched Magnus. He knew Maryse was not the perfect mother, far from it. But hearing Alec speak so fondly of her, despite everything, it really showed just how open Alexander’s heart was. “I can’t choose one though. I don’t know anything about flowers. Izzy always picked them out.”

Magnus looked over the selection and pulled out a bouquet of vibrant red and purple flowers. “I think Maryse will appreciate any flowers you get her. But what about these?”

Alec’s smile was blinding to Magnus. It made his heart skip a beat. “They’re perfect. Thank you for helping.” 

Magnus brushed it off like it was no big deal, “Well one of us has to have some sense of style and color coordination.” Alec rolled his eyes fondly and took the bouquet from him and paid the vendor. 

When they finally re-entered the institute Maryse was in the Ops center with Izzy, even if she was no longer a Shadowhunter, she would always look like she belonged there. She eventually looked up and saw Alec and Magnus walking toward her, but Alec had already hidden the flowers behind his back. “Alec! Magnus! How are my boys?” She asked, reaching to hug Magnus. They had been getting along much better since she had apologized and admitted to her wrongful prejudices. 

“We’ve been well, Maryse. How have you been?” Magnus asked as she hugged Alec, still unaware of the flowers. 

She pulled away and sighed contently, “I’ve actually been doing really well. Living a mundane life is not as bad as I thought.” 

“That’s great to hear mom. And actually, we got you these. Thought you might appreciate them.” Alec revealed the flowers. Any outsider would say that he was completely confident, but Magnus could see the tremor of doubt that rang through him as she first saw the flowers. 

“Oh Alec,” she grabbed the flowers from him and admired them, “they’re beautiful. Thank you, sweetheart.” When her gaze resettled on Alec, Magnus could see the smallest amount of mist in her eyes. 

Alec let himself revel in the praise for a second before righting himself and straightening his posture. “I’m glad you like them, mom. I’ve got to be getting back to work, but we’ll catch up soon, yes?”

Maryse beamed at her eldest son, she was obviously so proud of the man and leader he had become. “Yes. Of course.” Magnus felt so lucky to witness the interaction between mother and son, who very rarely saw eye to eye, but had so much love for each other in their hearts. 

_ Taking care of Izzy when she gets hurt during a mission _

_ Jace, Izzy, and Alec were all fighting back to back. One after another, demons were racing towards them and one after another the siblings took them down. Jace with his seraph blade, Izzy with her whip and Alec with his bow and arrows, the demons dissipated into thick black smoke with awful shrieks. Each sibling could hold their own, but everyone slipped up from time to time. Izzy was distracted with a demon to her left and did not see another lunge at her to sink its teeth into her thigh. “IZZY!” the parabatai screamed, as they saw their sister hit the floor. _

Magnus watched as Alec carried his limp, unconscious sister in his arms and placed her on the nearest flat surface. He rushed over and began to assess the girl’s wound, pouring his magic into the bite in an attempt to heal it. Alec moved far enough away to give Magnus space to work, but only just. His hand stayed clasped with his sister’s. His eyes darted from Isabelle’s face to her leg where Magnus was working. She roused with the pain of having the venom extracted. She writhed in pain. Alec leaned over her, effectively holding her down and blocking her view of the gash. “Hey. Hey, Izzy. Look at me, Iz. You’re gonna be okay. Alright? You just gotta stay still for a little bit longer, okay?” he shushed trying to calm his baby sister. She just nodded her head and tried to keep as still as possible. He ran his hand through her hair, pushing it away from her face, “That’s it. Keep it up kiddo. Just a little bit longer, alright?” Magnus is finally able to close the injury and Isabelle’s body goes lax with relief. 

Alec finally takes a quick look at Izzy’s healed leg, before pulling her into his chest, holding on to her tightly. Her arms wrap around his shoulders loosely. “Don’t ever do that again, you hear me?” his voice choked up. 

Izzy just lays her head on his shoulder and nods lightly. Alec slips his arm under her legs and picks her up easily, not unlike when he walked in, but with less urgency now. Izzy instinctively tightens her grip around his neck and lets her big brother carry her to her room.

When Alec emerges from Izzy’s room, Magnus is standing right outside the door waiting for him. Alec falls into his arms, barely holding himself up, as he comes down from the adrenaline rush. Magnus just holds him, rubbing a soothing hand down his back. He feels a few tears on his shoulder that must have escaped Alec’s eyes. “Thank you.” Alec’s voice sounds so small and broken, despite his sister being alright now, all of the emotions are obviously catching up to him now.

“No problem at all, my love. I’m just glad she’s alright.”

“She’s on paperwork duty for a week. No, a month,” Alec mumbles into his shoulder. 

Magnus lets out a low laugh, “I expect so, yes. She’s not going to be very happy about that though.”

“I don’t care,” he deadpans. He finally removes his face from the junction of Magnus' shoulder, and brown eyes meet misty hazel ones. Alec closes his eyes again to keep more tears from falling and leans his forehead on Magnus’, “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

_ Jace gets a cold _

Magnus was just about to call Alec when his phone starts ringing and his dear boyfriend’s picture pops up on his phone indicating an incoming call. “Well you must be reading my mind, love,” he jokingly answers the call.

“Hey, Magnus. I know we were supposed to go have dinner, but something’s come up. You think we can take a raincheck?”

“Of course. Is everything alright?” concern leaks into his voice.

“Oh yeah. Nothing life-threatening-” Alec’s sentence is cut off by his own voice yelling away from the phone, “Jonathan Christopher Lightwood get your ass back in bed!” Despite the fact that is not actually Jace’s name, it triggers memories of a stern Maryse Lightwood from his childhood and Jace does, in fact, get back into bed. “I take it back. It might be life-threatening, I am  _ this _ close to killing Jace.”

Magnus chuckles at the parabatai antics, “What seems to be the problem?”

“Jace is sick. He caught some kind of cold on the hunt last night.”

“Well, he can’t be any worse of a patient than you are. You are miserable when you’re sick,” Magnus shudders at the memory of when Alec was last sick.

“Hey! I’m not that bad. And I assure you Jace is much worse,” Alec scoffs.

“Sure, love. Well, do you want me to bring some medicine? I’ll pick up some food and we can just eat there,” he asks, trying to come up with excuses to see his boyfriend.

Alec brushes off the offer, “I’m sure you have more important things to be doing.”

Magnus smirks, “Oh Alexander, there is nothing more important to me than seeing you, I’ll be over in a few minutes. How does thai food sound?”

Alec’s heart skips a beat and there’s a small smile on his face, “Sounds great.”

“Perfect. See you in a bit.”

When Magnus reaches the institute, he makes his way to Jace’s room, assuming that’s where Alec would be. He’s right, of course, Alec is sitting in the corner of the room, half reading a book and half keeping an eye on his parabatai. Magnus quietly steps into the room and gets Alec’s attention, “I brought the medicine from the last time you were sick. Should work for Jace.” 

Alec stands and pecks his lips, “Thank you. He’s so annoying like this.”

“I’m sick, not dead. I can still hear you, Alec,” Jace’s congested voice comes from the big lump of blankets on the bed.

Alec rolls his eyes lovingly, “Yeah yeah whatever. Sit up and take this medicine,” he walks over and hands Jace the correct dosage. 

Jace throws back the sickly sweet medicine and makes a disgusted face, “‘S gross,” he complains.

Alec pulls the blankets up to Jace’s chin as he settles back down into the bed, “Yeah well don’t get sick and you won’t have to take it.” Jace grumbled incoherently, already falling into a deep sleep.

Magnus just stands to the side and watches the tender moment between brothers unfold. Alec’s need to care for others and Jace’s undying independence tended to clash, but at that moment Alec was allowed to care, and Jace was allowing himself to be cared for. Alec eventually turned back to Magnus and smiled. “C’mon. I’m starving,” Alec led Magnus from the room quietly so they could eat the food he brought.

  
  


_ Trying to get Magnus to come to bed. _

Alec stepped into the loft at eleven at night, having just gotten back from a hunt. He expected to have to sneak through the apartment, as to avoid waking up his sleeping boyfriend, but he was actually met with the warlock working intensely in his office. “Hey, what are you still doing up?” Alec asked, slipping out of his boots and placing his bow and quiver next to the door. 

Magnus spares a quick glance as Alec unclasps his thigh holster, “Working on a particularly complex problem for a client. For some reason, this Seelie is being very… specific and it’s taking me a bit longer than I expected to figure it out.” 

Alec stands in front of Magnus’ desk, looking down at his project, but he doesn’t really know what he’s looking at, “Alright well, I’m gonna go shower. Are you gonna come to bed soon?”

“Yeah I’ll be in, in a minute,” Magnus says, focus still solely on the potion in front of him.

Alec spends a good 15 minutes in the shower, scrubbing all the sweat and grime off his body after the hunt, letting his rigid muscles relax under the hot water. He emerges from the steam filled bathroom and is met with an empty bedroom, he frowns. He pulls on his softest pair of grey sweatpants and rubs most of the water out of his hair, before going to find Magnus. He finds his still hunched over his desk. He steps behind him and leans down winding his arms around the working man’s shoulders. “Magnus,” Alec whispers sweetly “come to bed, love.” 

Magnus leans back into his chest and runs his hand up and down the tattooed arms, “Sorry, I didn’t realize how much time went by.”

Alec nuzzles his cold nose into Magnus’ warm cheek, “You’re forgiven if you come to bed right now.”

Magnus turns his head and places a solid kiss to Alec’s lips, lacing his fingers into soft, damp hair. “Let me just clean up a bit, ” he says once they pull away from the kiss. Alec nods sleepily and slinks off to their shared bedroom.

When Magnus walks into the room, Alec is already half asleep on top of the blankets. Magnus undresses down to his boxers and pulls the blankets out from under Alec. He crawls under the covers and pulls Alec to his chest. Despite being half asleep Alec burrows further into Magnus’ arms, his head under Magnus’ chin, and legs intertwining. All thoughts of the day leave Magnus as he lies with Alec in his arms, and he falls asleep as well.

_ His entire demeanor changing when seeing Magnus _

Magnus walks through the Institute doors focused, he’s on a mission. He’s returning from a three week long warlock conference in Dubai, and hasn’t seen his boyfriend in that time. It’s a feeling close to torture: missing his boyfriend when he’s only a finger snap away. But for some reason warlocks frown upon portalling during “important meetings concerning the future of our people.” So when he arrives at the Institute his goal is to find his beautiful Shadowhunter. It seems like he’s walked down every hallway and searched every room, when he runs into a familiar face. 

“Magnus you’re back!” Jace is walking towards him, dripping in sweat and smelling like he hasn’t showered in days. Magnus hopes the blonde man keeps his distance, he’s wearing his one of a kind silk shirt. 

“Yup. So not that I’m not happy to see you, but do you know where Alec is?” Magnus tries not to be so rude about it but he can’t help the anticipation he feels.

Jace just smiles and shakes his head, “Yeah he’s in the training center. Be warned though, he’s in a bit of a mood. Me and him just finished sparring and he’s still going at it.”

Magnus doesn’t even think of Jace’s warning, “Great, thanks. Talk to you later.” He nearly jogs towards the training center without letting Jace say goodbye. As soon as he walks through the large doors of the workout room, he sees Alec beating a punching bag. He’s got on black gym shorts and black running shoes. His dark hair is plastered to his face and neck and he has sweat rolling off his chiseled body. His skin is slightly pink with exertion, which makes his runes stand out even more. But his face looks far too stressed for someone as young as him. He looks like he’s worked himself into the ground, which wouldn’t be much of a surprise when it comes to Alec. He gives himself a few more seconds to admire the hunter’s skill, he has quick jabs and a strong hook, his back and arm muscles shift with every movement. Eventually Magnus has seen his fill and decides to interrupt Alec in the best way he knows how. “You know as much as I love this view, I can think of much better ways to wear out those strong muscles,” Magnus tries to be flirtatious but it just comes out as fond, he’s missed Alec so much. 

The sound of flesh against the punching bag stop and Alec flings his head to the side to see the source of the somewhat rude comment. “Magnus,” Alec’s eyes light up and his smile is so bright that it’s probably lighting the whole Institute. Magnus thinks that the sun is dull in comparison to the expression on his love’s face. Emotions bubble up in his chest when he remembers that that smile is almost exclusively for him. Magnus barely remembers the pain of the last few weeks, being apart from Alec, because the love he sees in his Shadowhunter’s face erases it all. He’s pulled out of his thoughts when Alec’s arms wrap around his waist and he’s being pulled in for a kiss. His arms are immediately around Alec’s shoulders and his fingers are carding through damp hair. It starts off sweet, simply a hello and I’ve missed you. But in their usual fashion, it becomes increasingly more intimate. Their hands start roaming and one of them will need to stop before it becomes too inappropriate for Alec’s place of work. Magnus takes the initiative and pulls away slightly. Alec makes an upset noise that Magnus can’t help but smile at.

“Can you leave right now?” Magnus whispers, partly to maintain the moment, but also because he’s out of breath. Alec has that effect on him. All Alec can do is nod, not wanting to break the intimate moment either. “Great,” Magnus snaps his fingers and a portal opens up behind them to the loft and Alec stumbles back into it. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading!


End file.
